Purchases in Santa Clara County just became a little more expensive with the new half-cent Measure B sales tax going into effect April 1.
Those funds will jumpstart the Valley Transportation Authority’s 30-year collection of more funds to fix potholes, upgrade highway interchanges, build expressways, improve bus and Caltrain service and complete other transportation efforts.
In Morgan Hill, the biggest windfalls from the new sales tax—passed by voters in November 2016 as Measure B—will come in the form of $800,000 annually for basic roads and streets maintenance/upgrades, and about $9.5 million for the long-needed Santa Teresa Boulevard/Hale Avenue extension on the west side of town.
Other Measure B funds potentially disbursed to Morgan Hill could help improve pedestrian/bicycle safety and mobility, add more bus lines to the area and bring more Caltrain service to local residents, according to city staff.
But the funds won’t start rolling in for at least four months, as VTA staff and representatives, with the help of a citizens oversight committee and officials from 15 cities in the county who will benefit from the tax, will spend the next quarter drafting a detailed plan for the expenditure of the funds.
“By the end of the quarter, we’ll be able to start getting money out to the cities so they can start using it on road repair,” said Morgan Hill Mayor Pro Tem Larry Carr, who sits on the VTA board of directors.
VTA expects to receive its first payment of Measure B sales tax in June. The board is scheduled to adopt a “final draft program” for Measure B, as well as a budget allocation for 2018-19, by the end of June, according to the VTA website.
Measure B is projected to raise between $6 billion and $6.5 billion countywide for transportation infrastructure improvements over the next 30 years. Funding is divided into nine categories, not all of which will directly impact Morgan Hill:
• $1.5 billion for the BART extension to downtown San Jose;
• $250 million for bicycle/pedestrian mobility and safety improvements;
• $314 million for Caltrain capacity improvements;
• $700 million for Caltrain grade separations;
• $750 million for county expressways (including the Santa Teresa/Hale extension in Morgan Hill);
• $750 million for highway interchanges;
• $1.2 billion for local streets and roads (including $800,000 annually for Morgan Hill);
• $350 million for State Route 85 corridor congestion relief and noise abatement;
• $500 million for public transit operations.
Need is desperate
The drafters of Measure B used a formula based on each city’s population and roadway miles to determine their annual allocation from the new sales tax funds. In Morgan Hill, that amount comes to $800,000 annually, though the first full annual allocation likely won’t come until next fiscal year.
The city currently spends just more than $2 million per year on street maintenance, but officials have declared they need to spend at least $5.8 million just to maintain roadway infrastructure in its current citywide condition.
With Measure B and possible new gas tax funding proposed last week by the governor, city officials are optimistic about future pothole repair and other maintenance projects. The new gas taxes, which have yet to be approved by the state legislature, could bring another $1.4 million annually to Morgan Hill for streets infrastructure, Carr said.
“That’s the closest we’ve come to the state doing something” to repair roads and streets, Carr added.
Unexpectedly to Carr and other officials, shortly after Measure B was approved, VTA suggested the annual funds for maintenance and pothole repair could come in the form of a reimbursement, rather than an up-front distribution.
“I’ve heard concerns about that,” Carr said. “It’s not the way most cities or I were thinking about it when supporting the measure last fall.”
He added that he thinks the City of Morgan Hill can afford to work with that proposal if it becomes the rule, but admits it would be easier for cities to receive the funds before spending them.
Westside bypass funding on the way
Another vital transportation need in Morgan Hill is the extension of the Santa Teresa Boulevard/Hale Avenue corridor on the west side of town. This project has been in the pre-planning stages for decades, with viable funding having dried up over the years.
The “county expressways” category of Measure B projects would provide about 70 percent of the city’s cost to extend Santa Teresa Boulevard from the intersection of Hale and West Main Avenues, to the intersection of Spring and DeWitt avenues. This funding amounts to about $9.5 million, with the city kicking in the remaining $4 million or so.
Together, these sums will cover design, right-of-way acquisition, environmental studies and construction, according to Morgan Hill Public Works Director Karl Bjarke.
When deciding how to spend these expressway funds countywide, the VTA board will give preference to projects that are “shovel ready,” added Morgan Hill Finance Director Christina Turner. She sits on the Measure B Technical Advisory Committee with Bjarke and representatives of the 15 other cities that are slated to benefit from Measure B.
Bjarke added the city’s portion of the Santa Teresa/Hale extension will be “100 percent designed” in May. After that, private property purchases for the new roadway’s right-of-way will proceed, and Bjarke expects the project to be shovel ready by the middle of 2018.
There is also a county portion of the Santa Teresa/Hale extension, which will extend the roadway from DeWitt and Spring Avenue to Sunnyside and West Edmundson Avenue. This project, projected to cost about $8 million, is also on the list of Measure B expressway projects.
Together, these two extensions will create a seamless bypass around the west side of downtown Morgan Hill—something that residents and city planners have identified as key to solving the area’s worsening congestion problems.
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Any residents interested in helping to keep officials accountable in the expenditure of Measure B sales tax funds can apply to be a member of the Measure B Citizens Oversight Committee. VTA is seeking eight candidates for this committee, and applications must be submitted by April 21. The committee will “audit and report on the performance of VTA and the various project sponsors to ensure the funds are being expended consistent with the approved programs,” according to the committee description. To apply for the Citizens Oversight Committee or learn more, visit vta.org.
